This invention relates to systems for loading materials in bulk into a conveyance or other receptacle for transport or shipment. More particularly, this invention relates to such a system for loading bulk flowable material, such as coal, that is less expensive to construct and more efficient in operation than prior systems of the same type.
A typical bulk material loading system is that used to load coal or a similar flowable bulk material by weight into a receptacle or into a moving conveyance such as a truck, a railroad car, or other transport means. In such a system, bulk materials from a storage area are loaded onto a belt conveyor by means of variable rate feeders or adjustable slide gates and moved upwardly to the inlet of a series of bins aligned vertically over the conveyance. The loadout rate from the storage area is monitored by one or more belt scales located on the conveyor. The loadout rate is set and adjusted by the variable rate feeders or adjustable slide gates.
The bulk material is discharged from the conveyor into a surge bin of large capacity which acts as an online temporary storage facility. The surge bin is discharged into a single weigh bin where a predetermined weight of material equal to the capacity of the conveyance is accumulated and discharged through a loadout chute into the conveyance. Usually, the conveyance is one of a series of slowly moving trucks or railroad cars or the like. The surge bin is required to have a large capacity to compensate for variations in speed and/or capacity of the conveyances and to handle interruptions in loadout flow and similar circumstances.
The large capacity surge bin is expensive in itself because of its size and also requires that the system be of considerable height because of the necessary height of the surge bin, weigh bin and loadout chute over the conveyances. A lengthy belt conveyor and considerable horsepower are required to lift the bulk materials the required height to the inlet of the surge bin.